


Ink, Sand and Enthusiasm

by CryOfTheRaven



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:22:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27158569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CryOfTheRaven/pseuds/CryOfTheRaven
Summary: A female cell of three girls are trained by Kakashi for a while while team 7 go on missions. As the three girls are introduced to more people, many friendships are made, some go even further...
Relationships: Gaara (Naruto)/Original Female Character(s), Sai (Naruto)/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 1





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> This was a story I had originally posted over on FanFiction.net and was a collaboration effort between me and two of my friends who had their own OC's in it.  
> Although they have since stopped writing, I do have several more chapters planned however they would take a different direction from the story that is currently written as I don't want to re-write everything.
> 
> If you would like to see a continuation of the characters (in a somewhat different direction), please leave some feedback and I'll get around to writing some more.

"Kakashi."

"Yes Lady Tsunade?"

"While Naruto's away, you are to train another cell." Lady Tsunade orders.

This is shocking, why would I have to train another cell? All of the graduates have teachers, so why would Lady Tsunade ask me to train another cell?

"This cell has already become better than their teacher, so I am asking you to help train them further."

"May I ask, how old are these shinobi?"

"Two of them are close to turning 16 and one has just turned 15." Tsunade answers.

"Are there any special abilities or things that I should know about?" Kakashi asks. Tsunade sighs, leaning back in her chair.

"They are an extraordinary cell; all of their skills complement each other. Komatsu Lin specializes in taijutsu and has a blood styled kekki genkai, Michiyo Kuroda who has one of the legendary swords of the seven ninja swordsmen and is skilled in jutsu, and Miharu Sakamoto who has wings that she can grow and uses weapons and jutsu, she workes well as a spy over anything else. It will be a real challenge for you Kakashi." Tsunade explaines, handing Kakashi the three files on the girls.

"Thank-you." Kakashi says taking the files.

"You will meet them tomorrow at the training field, that is all Kakashi." Tsunade says turning her chair around to look out the massive window as Kakashi walked over to the door to let himself out.

This sure will be interesting; I wonder how strong they really are. Kakashi leaves the Hokage's office and bumps into Shizune in the hallway. She looks quite surprised when she sees the files that Kakashi is carrying.

"So you're training that cell Kakashi?"

"Yes, Lady Tsunade just assigned them to me." Kakashi replies holding the files up.

"They work pretty well as a team, and as individuals, it will be quite a challenge, especially with Miharu Sakamoto with them. She is quite a smart and interesting girl." Shizune comments, pointing to Sakamoto's file amongst them. "Quite a sad story though..." She mutters

"Thank-you Shizune, but how did Michiyo Kuroda get one of the legendary swords?" Kakashi asks Shizune, showing her the picture on Asuka's file.

"Michiyo originally hailed from the village hidden in the mist, but she moved over here quite a while ago. She was put in the interrogation unit for quite a while, she was totally honest, and she wasn't acting as a spy or a criminal. She was cleared through and moved into the village." Shizune explains to Kakashi.

"Komatsu Lin has the ability to change the blood flow around the body, and also gather enough blood in an area to push through the skin like a cut or graze. She can't stop the heart entirely but she can stop it enough for somebody to pass out for a while. Excuse me Kakashi, I have a few things to discuss with Lady Tsunade."

"Thank-you Shizune for the information." Kakashi says as Shizune briskly walks past him towards Lady Tsunade's office.

"Anytime, and good luck!" Blurts Shizune as she turns around the corner.

This team really will be a challenge.


	2. Let it Begin

\--Miharu POV--

“Mornin’ Lin!” I yelled as I ran towards my friend. “You ready for training?”

She turns towards me with a slightly surprised look on her face, and a minute later her face spreads into the mischievous grin that I know so well.

“Yeah, I’m a little tired because I stayed up way too late last night, but I’m ready none the less.” Lin replies as we turn off through another street.

“Hey! Lin, Miharu! Wait up!”

“Hey Kuri! Lin yells backwards towards Kuroda, who has a massive smile on her face. Kuri is the nickname that we gave her ages ago because she disliked her name so much.

_She’s energetic as ever…._

“How do you guys get up so early?” Kuroda asks when she catches up. “I only woke up a few minutes ago and had to rush through my breakfast!”

We walk through the streets of Konoha- talking quietly because most people were still asleep. Many of the shopkeepers are still setting up shop along with a few other early risers were walking around.

“Hey did anyone find out who our sensei is?” I ask as we start approaching one of the gates leading out of the village.

“No I didn’t find out.” Kuroda answers

“Me neither” Lin says, walking out of the gates and towards the training field, Kuroda and I following slowly behind. Lin had always been impatient.

“Guess it’ll just have to be a surprise then.” I sigh. The sun had just started glowing above the trees and it looked stunning. The thermals will soon start to rise from the ground and I can’t wait to be soaring on them in the mid-day sun. We walk onto the bright green grass on the training field and stand there waiting for our teacher.

“Should we talk tactics for training?” Lin asks, mainly because we had nothing better to do while we waited.

“Yeah. What about the usual set-up? Me in the sky, Kuri in the trees and you on the ground.”

“I think that would work well, but Lin should go in first, followed by me and then you.” Kuroda explained. “Lin can use a whole heap of tai-jutsu; I can use my sword, then you with jutsu and weapons maybe.”

“That sounds great!” Lin exclaims, “Also then, depending on the challenge set we can alter it according, while roughly keeping the same plan together. I’m guessing we’ll have to use a lot of our skills together ‘cause our sensei will actually be competent this time.”

“Don’t let Edo-sensei hear you say that, Lin.” Kuroda warns.

_I can’t wait to start training more! This sensei will probably be a lot harder than other sensei._

* * *

About 15 minutes later, a tall man with silver hair shows up. He had a mask covering most of his face and his leaf headband covering his left eye. _Wait, is this…_

“Hello, I am your temporary teacher, Hatake Kakashi. Please to meet you” says Kakashi smiling at us. I presume that you three are Komatsu Lin, Sakamoto Miharu and Michiyo Kuroda?

\--Kakashi POV--

“Yeah” answers one of the girls. She has long dark brown hair that is pulled back into a ponytail, and a sweeping fringe over her forehead. She has bright amber eyes and a leaf headband over her forehead. She’s wearing a light blue tank top with a black jacket that was zipped up halfway, slim dark blue pants with black ninja sandals and a small belt with a sword hanging off it. She also has a black, grey and white bracelet around her right wrist “But seriously, you can just call me Miharu if you want.”

“You can call me Lin if you would like.” says another one of the girls. She has really long blonde hair that is in a low ponytail that finishes at her waist, her leaf headband on her forehead and she has hazel eyes. She is wearing long black, pants a khaki coloured t-shirt with a v neck, elbow length fingerless gloves and black shoes. She also has a blue and white bracelet around her right wrist.

“And I’m Kuroda, but I prefer Kuri, or Kuri-chan.” The last of the girls has short black hair with red streaks through her fringe and dark brown eyes. She has a baggy yellow ¾ sleeve shirt with a black tank top underneath. She has a light green bracelet around her right wrist as well. Her pants are navy blue with a blue village headband around her waist; also she has a large sash around her waist with a sword hanging off it. _One of the seven legendary swords!_ It is narrow and long with a hole at the end. There was a line of thin wire wound around a reel stuck on her side.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miharu-chan, Lin-chan and Kuri-chan.” I say to the three girls, “Sorry I was so late, I had to help an old lady carry her bags.”

“Don’t worry about it! We weren’t waiting long!” Lin says, grinning at me. Her grin is infectious, and I had to smile back.

“YES WE WERE!” Kuroda yells at us, “WE WERE WAITING FOR HOURS!”

“Kuri.” Miharu says sarcastically, facing Kuroda.

“Yeah?”

“It was only 15 minutes.”

“Oh… Ok, sorry guys, sorry Kakashi-sensei.” Kuroda says to Lin, Miharu and me with an ashamed look on her face.

“It’s ok, don’t worry about it!” I say smiling at Kuroda. She looked up and her face was suddenly lit up, as though my reassurance made her day.

\--Miharu POV--

“Okay so let’s start training with a little test. You are to try and get these bells off me and you have until mid-day to do so. You can use weapons and any jutsu, if you don’t come at me with intent to kill, you will fail.” Kakashi explains when Kuri has slipped back into the way she normally acts.

“Okay.” Lin, Kuri and I say together, it is so weird when we say things together.

“Alright then, you have until mid-day. GO!” Kakashi-sensei says, Kuri and Lin dash backwards into the forest, while I release my wings and soar upwards into the thermals and over the trees.

I fly around the tops of the trees, keeping an eye on Kakashi-sensei who is standing in the middle of the field. I can easily see every hair on his head from where I was. I wait for two key things. The first is waiting for him to lift his headband off, he is Kakashi of the Sharingan eye and he will surely use it in this training, the second was waiting for Lin to come out.

 _There it is!_ Kakashi-sensei lifted up his headband and it is showing his red Sharingan eye.

_Be careful Lin……._

\--Kakashi POV--

I knew that Lin and Kuri are in the trees somewhere and Miharu is in the sky watching me, and possibly watching Kuri and Lin. _I wonder what they’ve planned…_ _huh? Who’s that? Lin?_ Lin is walking out of the trees into the little clearing, near to where I’m standing.

“So you think that you’re good enough to go straight off against me?” I ask Lin who had stopped walking and just stood there.

“Dunno. I figured that I should try at least.” Lin answers as she gets ready to fight.

She suddenly jumps over me and drops with her foot aimed at my head. Before her foot hits my head, I grab her foot and swing it to the side. Lin twists out of my hand and places her hands on the ground and swings her legs around at my lower body. I quickly jump backwards and dodge her kick; I go back at her with a similar attack but at her arms as she gets up. Lin launches herself up and lands a kick on my chest. I start skidding backwards, righting myself and stand watching her.

I hear a stretching sound and find thin, clear wire like string hanging around the trees. _Ah, Kuri’s sword. I hadn’t noticed her darting around getting ready; I was too busy with Lin. She sure is quick though._

Instead of hanging around here I make the hand signs for Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole Technique and get away from my predicament.

\--Miharu POV—

 _Damn it! It was all going so well. I’ll have to circle around and find Kakashi-sensei._ I drift around on the thermals, searching the ground and the trees for signs of life. Kuri and Lin are trying to find him too. A slight movement at the corner of my eye catches my attention, gotcha! _Now to lead him over to when Kuri is._

I quickly turn towards and drop silently to the silver haired sensei. I glide over the trees and come into his view in a tiny clearing.

“Found you”, I say keeping just below the tree tops, I’m ready for a quick escape or a quick attach.

“Wow, you must have amazing eyesight”, Kakashi-sensei says turning to face me, he looks totally calm but he is probably ready to move at any second.

“Right back at you Kakashi-sensei, you have the sharingan after all. Although we still have completely different eyes”, I reply, steadily dropping lower to the ground, _I probably will have to fight him a bit, just to make it look normal._

I drop to the ground and tuck my wings together behind my back; I will need them soon so there's no use in retracting them


	3. Through the Trees (Short Chapter)

\--Miharu POV--

 _Got to think fast, I have to get Kakashi-sensei over to where Kuri is._ I quickly make the hand signs for my own jutsu: dragon, horse, monkey, bird.

“Raining feathers!” I unfurl my wings and give them a massive swipe. Feathers rain down at an intense speed towards Kakashi-sensei; _he is easily going to dodge this._ Kakashi-sensei jumps to the side and dodges all of the feathers, so I jump up into a tree and fling one feather into his blind spot. He kept moving and notices the feather cutting through the air, he moves too slowly and the feather grazes his arm and rips his shirt.

I quickly jump from tree to tree towards Kuri, surely she would be wondering where I am _. I disappeared from her sight to get Kakashi back to where Lin was fighting him._ I flip around backwards and see him through the trees, blood dripping slightly from his arm. _I am so sorry Kakashi-sensei!_

\--Kakashi POV--

_Miharu is one smart shinobi, trying to get me in my blind spot. That was one amazing jutsu as well. She must have pooled a little bit of her chakra into each of the feathers to make them stronger. She must also have a wind style chakra like Naruto._

I follow behind Miharu, after she clipped me with a shot, jumped off, and trying to get her bearings back. The cut on my shoulder is trickling slowly with blood; I hope that it is midday soon. I see Miharu do a front flip in the air and calculate how far I am behind. Landing on the next branch she stops and watches me intently.

While moving across through the trees, I throw a handful of shuriken that curve around behind the trees towards her back. Miharu swoops underneath the branch that she was standing on, dodging the shuriken easily. She rushes upwards and continues gliding through the trees effortlessly and I catch up to her, staying a little bit back in-case she pulls any tricks.

Very quickly she throws a whole heap of weapons, aimed quite well and missing by hairs. While I was distracted with the weapons, Miharu had flown into a clearing and back into the blue sky. I enter the field cautiously and spot a whole heap of clear wire hanging all around the field. _I guess I have to fight Kuri now._ I spot Kuri’s figure standing in the middle of the field, a broad smile plastered on her face. She suddenly disappears from that spot and slashes her sword at me from behind.


	4. A Little bit on Life

\--Kuri POV--

 _Where is Miharu? She’s taking forever!_ I have been waiting here for ages, waiting for Miharu and Kakashi-sensei to come. I hear rustling in the trees and Sakamoto swoops out into the clearing, she hesitates and smiles at me. Miharu also points a finger behind her; _he’s right behind me_ she mouths and flaps upwards into the sky. She hops on a thermal and circles around the clearing.

More rustling comes from the trees and Kakashi-sensei jumps down onto the ground and standing on alert. I can’t help but grin, I know time is almost up but I can’t stop smiling! It’s finally my time to take a hit at the amazing Kakashi-sensei!

I zip around behind him and swipe my sword at his back; he ducks at the last second and I twist around to face him again. Taking another shot he blocks it with a kunai. We are pushing against each other’s weapons; I try as hard as I can but he is still stronger than me. In one movement I sweep to the side and out of the way from his weapon. I jump onto one of the many wires I placed around the field and pull my arm back with my sword in it. I launch my sword and watch the wire attached to it. As Kakashi-sensei darts to the side, my sword drifts past the bells attached to his belt, but it isn’t enough to knock them off.

I tug the wire that is attached to the end of my sword and pull it hard so it zips back towards me. I launch it at Kakashi-sensei again, causing him to move to the side again. Gotcha _!_ Because Kakashi-sensei focused on dodging my sword, he didn’t see the clear wire that he runs into.

Slowly he cuts himself free and I sneak a glance into the sky. _Huh? Where has Miharu gone?_ She had left my vision so I snap back to Kakashi-sensei; I pull on the clear thread and launch my sword at him once again. Kakashi-sensei struggles to dodge it but manages to cut himself free as the sword grazes his arm.

\--Kakashi POV--

 _Gosh these girls are good, two cuts on my arm and many close calls. No wonder they passed their old sensei._ I jump out of the bind I was in and hop a good distance away from Kuri, being careful not to get snagged again. _They must’ve planned this from the start. No wonder Miharu was moving through the trees and not trying to attack me._

I focus more on Kuri’s odd movements; she throws and pulls the sword and thread in awkward ways to get it to go in different directions. I analyse her movements and manage to find a slight pattern in her movements, there are different movements for different angles and speed. Now I dodge her attacks with ease so I turn onto the offensive.

I clasp my hands together into different hand signs until lightning is cracking from my hand. I run at Kuri at speed and dodge her attacks that are aimed at me. I flicker of panic crosses her face and she looks around to dodge my attack. I get close to her after she tried another attack and move in to hit her with my attack, but right before it hits a flash of brown passes and she has disappeared from where she was previously standing. The lightning also disappears from my hand and I turn to face where she had gone.

Three girls stand together ready to launch another attack, Miharu once again surges into the sky, but a lot lower that she previously was, rather than gliding effortlessly, she has to occasionally flap her tawny coloured wings to stay up. Lin and Kuri both run at once and attack simultaneously, using each other to attack effectively. I manage to hold them off for a while but two-on-one is hard, I jump backwards away to get away from the flurry of attacks, rather than go after me, Lin and Kuri stand there puffing from exhaustion, _who wouldn’t be tired after that?_

I get caught off guard as a sudden rush of wind nearly knocks me over, the bells at my waist tinkle and then go quiet. I look down at my waist and realise that they have been taken! Miharu stands puffing a little with the bells dangling between two fingers, she then tosses them to Kuri and Lin which they catch and hold in the palms of their hands.

“Is training finished Kakashi-sensei?” Lin asks as she holds up her bell, her puffing subsiding slowly.

“Well, you managed to get the bells of me so I guess so!” I reply to the trio. Kuri has a massive smile growing on her face as she hears that.

“Yeah!” She yells while jumping in the air, _how can she manage to do that after she was exhausted a second ago?_ That burst comes back to bite her as she nearly topples over, Miharu grabs her and holds her off while laughing.

“I think we should go and some lunch then, we need to get our energy back, also so that you don’t nearly fall over again!” Miharu says, still laughing. We all head back off the field back to the village. Miharu moves in between Kuri and Lin to help them get back, even though she is tired herself. By the time we get back at the village, Kuri and Lin are walking normally again without Miharu’s help.

We are all about to go our separate ways when I hear someone yell out: ‘Kakashi-sensei’ from behind us. I turn around and Naruto, Sakura, Sai and Yamato are walking towards us, just coming back from a mission.

“Hello Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Yamato. How did the mission go?”

“It was super easy!” Naruto exclaims, “Why can’t I get put on a harder mission? Huh? Who are they Kakashi-sensei?” He asks, pointing to Lin, Kuri and Sakamoto standing a few metres behind me. The girls look curiously over their shoulders as they turn around.

“This is the cell I was out training with today. This is Lin, Kuri and Miharu.” I point to each of them respectively. They reply with a ‘hi’ and a slight wave to them. I also introduce them to Naruto, Sakura, Sai and Yamato.

“Uh, sorry but I’ve got to go see someone, I’ll see you guys later!” Miharu says walking towards the Hokage’s mansion. Everyone says ‘bye’ and she jogs off. Everyone else then parts and Yamato goes to the Hokage’s mansion to give a mission report.

\--Miharu POV-- 

I jog off towards the Hokage’s mansion to see if there is a message they want me to deliver to the sand village. My job for years has been to deliver mail from the leaf village to the sand village and vice-versa. Because birds can only carry a little amount of mail, it would take long time for mail to reach people, so being a ninja who can fly; I got the job to transport mail, whether it be parcels, general mail or top secret documents. I do it in between my main missions as a job, I do get paid for doing the errands, although it isn’t really the reason I do it. I love to see the happy faces of people when they receive mail; the money is just an extra bonus.

I get to the message centre at the top of the mansion; it is filled with messenger birds today.

“Is there anything for me to do today?” I ask one of the men in charge as he is tending to a bird.

“There is but you’d better hold off because there is some more coming in tomorrow.” He replies facing me and giving me a smile. He is so nice to me, I remember when I first started delivering mail, I would stand at the doorway, half hiding and I would wait for him to see me. Now I am a lot older and braver than I used to be.

“Ok, see you later then!” I say, giving him a smile and jumping off the roof. I soar down the side and just over the tree tops. I fly over the people walking below, seeing everything below, every little detail with my hawk-eyes. Literally.

I beat my wings to get higher and turn off towards my apartment. Having the top floor has the pros and the cons. It is great for jumping off and getting somewhere, also being able to fly onto the balcony and get out that way is good, but Kuri and Lin hate having to climb all of the stairs to get there, much to their disappointment.

I land on my balcony and open the doors and step into my room. I take my weapon bags and other tools off and walk into the kitchen to grab myself a drink of water. I end up drinking five glasses of water and eating some lunch. _I still have the rest of the day! It feels like it should be later than lunchtime._ I get up and walk across my room, then flop onto the bed to rest for a while. I turn onto my side and my eyes lock onto a book on my bedside table. _Oh yeah, I finished that book, I’ll go to the library a little later and return it._

* * *

I grab the book and put it into a little backpack, along with a drink bottle and my wallet. Rather than flying to the library, I decide to walk there. I close the doors to the balcony and lock the main door on my way out. I start walking down the stairs and pass a few other people on the way down, we exchange ‘hellos’ and I have a short conversation with a few. I reach the bottom of the stairs and I walk through streets with other apartment blocks and small shops. Soon I reach the main street and it is bustling with people. Shops are busy and children are playing in the street on this lovely day. I don’t need to rush too much so I take my time, sucking in this lovely atmosphere.

I reach the turnoff for the library and manoeuvre through busy shoppers and get onto the semi-empty road. It is oddly silent on this road compared to the main road. Not as many people are walking along here, but some of the noise from the other road flows down onto this road.

The library is near the centre of the city, it’s not as big as the archive library, but it isn’t small either. I walk in through the entrance and drop my book off at the desk.

“Thank-you”, the lady as the desk says as she scans it and puts it on a trolley with other books.

“That’s ok”, I reply walking away. _I need another book to read now._

I look through the wall of books, looking for something interesting to read. I pick up and interesting mystery and a fantasy before moving onto the non-fiction. In the middle of the library is a reading area, it has a few tables with chairs and a few people were seated and reading. Others were chatting quietly to one another. I spot someone familiar sitting at one of the tables, _Sai, that’s his name!_ From where I was I couldn’t tell what he was reading but I kept walking to the non-fiction books. He looked up from his book for a second and caught my gaze, I smiled and waved; he smiled back and went back to reading his book. His smile seemed fake, but it was still a nice smile.

I pick up a few books on animals, quite a few on hawks. I must have read every book on hawks in this library, and the library in the sand village, but I still read them over and over again. It’s like how if I see a bird of prey in the sky, I try and fly with it. Lots of them trust me because I’m up in the sky so much; Lin once commented that I was more bird than human.

I borrow out the books and head home again. I must have been in the library for around 40 minutes. I have been known to be in there for hours sometimes.

I walk back out onto the street and rather than walking straight home, I stop at a few shops to get food and other things that I need. The shops aren’t as busy as 40 minutes ago, but there are still people around, doing shopping or just chatting in the street.

With bags in both hands I head back up to apartment to read my books.


	5. To the Sand Village!

\--Miharu POV—

I wake up as early as I usually do every morning, which is very early, and go over to the balcony doors and pull open the thin, white curtains. The pre-glow of the sun has just started to illuminate the houses in the large village. Everything has begun to wake up. Everything just looks so beautiful in the morning sun and most people are never awake to see it.

I know that there is a bunch of mail waiting for me to deliver to the sand village which are mostly just general letters and packages but there is one very special one waiting, one for the Kazekage. My stomach just feels light from nervousness for what awaits me. I grab my clothes and get ready like every other morning, pants, shoes, jacket and put my hair up into a ponytail. Also, as I’m going to the sand today I pack my special flight goggles just in case there is a light wind or worse, a sandstorm. The ‘goggles’ are more of a mix between a visor and goggles, a clear piece of plastic that goes across both eyes with thin padding around the edges.

I really hope that there isn’t much more mail waiting for me since the last time I was there, having too many letters isn’t really an issue but packages on the other hand… just no fun to transport in large amounts.

I set off down the stairs after locking up my apartment because I want to save my energy for the long flight ahead. At this time of morning, all of the streets are empty; everyone is either asleep or getting ready inside for the working day. I suddenly hear running footsteps behind me; I turn around and see Kuri running towards me.

“What are you doing Kuri?” I ask as she slows down and walks beside me.

“I was trying to catch you before you left”, she puffs from running, “I wanted to know if I could come with you to the hidden sand village. I’ve never been there before.” I had no idea that she was going to say that. It would be quite hard to carry her all the way there but… I guess I could manage it.

“Ok, but you know that we will be in the air for ages, plus you just have to sit on my back for a long time.”

“Yeah ok, so I can come?” She replies with a light shining in her eyes.

“Yes you can come. But you need to pack you toiletries and stuff like that. We will be away for two nights at most, possibly three. Also take a few water bottles and some food for the journey, enough to get you there and back. We will eat there so don’t bring too much.” I explain.

“Ok, got it. Can you check through my stuff before we go, just to make sure I don’t forget anything? You know how I am!” Kuri says laughing a little.

“Yeah, sure. You go back and pack, I’ll pick you up in 15 minutes ok?” I ask starting to head off towards the Hokage’s mansion.

“Yep! See you then!” She replies, running back to her own apartment while I walk off down the street towards the Konoha Administration Building. While this building deals with all sorts of things, namely mail and mail deliveries, I head to the top floor where the birds are located to collect the mail. I’m one of the reasons I started keeping the mail up here, usually I would take off from here and go about my business as usual but today I’ve got to meet Kuri back at her apartment. In one of the corners of the circular room lays a bag that holds the letters are parcels for delivery. Lucky me, there aren’t too many letters here but then again, amazing how so many letters can accumulate since yesterday.

I carefully place each letter into my bag, letter after letter after letter, what I thought wasn’t many turned out to be much more than I hoped for. Jeeze, this had better not get too heavy with the packages as well.

After I carefully place the last package in my bag, I zip it shut and turn to leave.

“So you’re flying off today?” One of the ninjas who looks after the messenger birds says. I see him often around here; he is training in a way, one of the junior staff who feeds and looks after the birds.

“Yeah, I’m heading off today, there isn’t any extra mail that I’ve missed is there?” I ask, leaning on the doorframe to the room.

“Nope, it was all in that bag” he replies, he fills up another seed container for a pigeon

“Ok then, see you then!”

“Bye!”

I turn on my heel and walk down the steep path back to the ground to head to the Hokage’s mansion. The streets are glowing even brighter in the morning sun as it has fully risen into the sky just above the horizon. It’s seriously the shortest walk to take in the surroundings but it’s nice all the same.

I head upstairs towards the Hokage’s office, knocking on the door I wait for her to call me in. Once I do I step into the grand and spacious office.

“Good morning Lady Tsunade, you had a letter for me to deliver?” I ask politely closing the door behind me. I walk towards her and stop a metre away from her desk. She turns her chair around to face me with a serious look on her face. Then again, when doesn’t she look serious.

“Yes Miharu, this is to be delivered straight to the Kazekage”, she says. She opens a drawer to her right and pulls out a sealed white envelope which she places on the middle of the desk. I pick it up carefully and put it in a special pocket of my backpack where it can remain safe and dry.

“Thank-you Lady Tsunade, I will deliver this letter without fail”, I reply while putting the backpack on my shoulders and tightening the straps so it sits snugly and safely.

“Good, you can go now Miharu”, she says turning her chair around and looking out the window as she did when I entered the office.

I leave silently and close the door behind me. I pass a few other ninjas doing work in the building and make my way back to Kuri’s house. By now people are outside and cleaning their shops and setting up for the day, some people smile and wave, so I do the same. I pass my apartment and take a few other streets to Kuri’s house. She lives on the third floor of apartment levels so I quickly get up the stairs. I wait outside her door and before I can even knock, I can hear a loud ruckus inside.

Kuri sounds as if she is running around and throwing things around all over the place, I would hate to think what her neighbours think of her.

“Hey Kuri, I’m here”, I say as I open the door to what I can only describe as a war zone. Clothes are thrown over every clear surface while the sink tap is turned on with water flowing out of an overflowing water bottle. Without warning, Kuri crashes into the front room carrying her backpack and sword and almost trips over onto what’s left of the floor.

“Gee, I knew you were messy but I had no idea you could get this messy, this is a whole new level for you”

Once everything calms down and she has finished packing her backpack, she sits in the entrance way to her house with me waiting outside her door. I had checked through her pack and it’s just amazing what she packed and forgot to pack. She had managed to pack a lot of food, way more than she needed, but forgot a toothbrush of all things.

“Ok, I’m ready to go, let’s go!” She replies enthusiastically, jumping out of the entranceway and running out the door. “Hurry up Miharu!”

“Lock your door Kuri!” I yell back at her, she’s almost made it down a full flight of stairs before I shouted out to her. I admire her for wanting to get going; she must be so excited about going to the sand. After locking her door we walk down the stairs together, she looks like she might explode with excitement and if it wasn’t for the walls around the stairs, I swear she would have probably have jumped down.

“We have to get out and away from the village and make sure no one is following us ok?” I ask as we turn down and step down more stairs. I can’t really tell her about the top secret message and I just hope she takes it casually.

“Uh huh, are you sure that you’re going to be able to carry me all the way there?” She says, the excitement drained from her voice and instead, filled with concern. Phew, dodged a situation there.

“Yeah, you just have to do as I say ok? Just so you don’t go tumbling off my back or we can both end up injured”, I instruct her as we leave the building. The sun has just risen above the trees and is painting the tops of buildings in a bright yellow. We exit the village through the main gate and break off into a run until I lead us to a large clearing.

“Ok, I’m going to carry you in a piggy back style until I get high enough and straighten out, then you can sit on my lower back, holding onto my backpack”, I say pointing to the direction that we’re heading in.

“Yay! Take-off time!” Kuri shouts jumping on my back, practically knocking me over in the process, she is just far too excited.

“Kuri, we’re not going anywhere until I can get my wings out!” I shout back. She gets off my back and I throw my backpack off.

“Sorry Miharu, I forgot!” Kuri says, she is such a scatterbrain sometimes…

Once my wings are out and my backpack is back on, she jumps back on my back and I hold her legs. _This is going to be such a hard flight._ I take a long run up across the clearing, flapping my wings as hard I can. Finally getting some lift, we just manage to get over the trees and into the sky. I have to flap harder than I usually do to get high and maintain it. Usually I can fly for hours without flapping at all, but because I am carrying just under double the weight than usual, I have to flap every now and again to stay as high as required.

“You can sit up now Kuri!” I shout backwards, I let go of her legs and she sits cross legged on my back. It’s not as comfortable as I would have liked it to be, but I’ll just have to put up with it. I scan the area for any other ninjas spying on us from the trees. With my modified eyes I can see every strand of grass on the ground, great for spotting the tiniest of details that are wrong in a peaceful area like this.

Throughout the day, we stay pretty silent, aside when I talked to her about how Lin would freak out when she might not be able to find you in the village.

“Don’t worry, I left her a not saying that we had gone to the sand, I didn’t want to wake her up.” Since when did she have time to do that?

When Kuri finally sees the golden sand glowing in the distance, she screams and almost falls off my back. I’ve seen the sand for ages, but I didn’t want to ruin the fun for her, she sounds so happy seeing it for the first time. We had been passing over trees, and then rocks for ages, so seeing the sand meant that we only had to pass over it to get to the hidden sand village. It was around lunchtime, so it was quite hot going over the sand, but there are epic thermals to glide on, because the thermals are so great going over sand, I don’t have to flap my giant wing as much.

* * *

I begin to see the outline of the sand village in the distance which means our journey is nearly over. By foot this distance would have taken much longer, but going by air it is clear and quicker.

“Hey Kuri, I can see the village in the distance! We’re nearly there!” I shout, she immediately tries to see it herself.

“I can’t see it!” She shouts back, trying her best to see the village in the distance. “I wish I had your eyes, because then I could see everything!”

I laugh at her comment and I try to fly faster although my wings are already taking a lot of strain as it is, carrying extra weight. I have carried Kuri and Lin in missions before, but it wasn’t for very long, plus I was already in the air which made it easier. I also helped people in the village with carrying things to other people, but they were never as heavy as a person!

“I can see it, I can see it!” She suddenly yells as the village becomes clearer and clearer in the distance until I can make out the large entrance. As Kuri and I can see the details of the village, I tell her to get back into the piggy back so I can land. We land right outside the gate; I almost fall over from the weight on my back. She jumps of my back and I can see her trying to contain her excitement. She looking everywhere at once, trying to see everything and take everything in to remember.

I say hi to the ninjas patrolling the outside, they let me and Kuri in when they see my massive wings that I fold up on my back. We walk through the massive walls; Kuri just walks with her mouth open as she stares at the village itself. The sand village is so massive, with all the main streets meeting at the centre where the Kazekage’s office is.

We walk down the street in front of us and many people say hi to me, lots of them know me here, because I come here so often. Luckily we are great friends with the sand village so everyone is nice anyway.

“Miharu!” Someone shouts, I turn around and see Temari standing there. “Looks like you brought a friend this time!”

“Hey Temari, this is Kuroda from my cell.” I say, Kuri shoots me a glare before smiling and saying hi to Temari. She really hates it when people call her Kuroda, introducing her that way is so worth the evil glare.

I became friends with Temari when I had to give her a lot of mail for the exams being held back at the leaf village. We started to talk and soon became friends; I’m also friends with her siblings, Gaara and Kankuro.

“You heading to the Kazekage?” She asks

“Yeah, I have an important letter to give him”

“I’m going back there myself”, Temari replies as we start to walk. Temari tells us about what had been going on in the sand village; Kuri was silent for a while but then began joining in the conversation. We talk about our recent missions and news floating around the village. In no time at all we reach the Kazekage’s office.

I have never seen Kuri’s eyes get so wide.

Inside the building is a lot cooler that outside, Temari is heading somewhere else inside the building so we say bye to her and I lead Kuri to the Kazekage’s office. She seems nervous, meeting a Kage from another village the first time she visits. I knock on the door a few times and I hear Gaara call me in.

“Hello Miharu”, he pauses for a second when he sees Kuri next to me.

“Ah, this is Kuroda, she is in my cell”, I say quickly to fill the silence. Kuri doesn’t seem to have realised that I called her Kuroda and instead just looks a little stunned, I’m guessing it’s because the Kazekage is a lot younger than our own Hokage. “I have a letter for you from Lady Tsunade.” I get the letter out of my bag and hand it to Gaara. He opens the envelope and read for a few seconds before putting it down.

“Thank-you Miharu, how long will you be staying for this time?” Gaara asks, obviously realising that its Kuri’s first time in the sand village.

“Just tonight, although we might leave a little later tomorrow, Kuri wants to have a look around the village” I reply facing Kuri, her face turning ever so slightly pink.

“Ok, I shall have a room prepared for you and Kuroda.”

“Thank you Gaara.” I reply, “I better go and get this mail out, see you later!” I say, leaving the room with Kuri right behind me. I close the door and we walk a little bit before Kuri talks.

“I didn’t know that the Kazekage is so young!” Kuri exclaims

“Yeah, he’s my age, 16.” I reply looking at her shocked face when I say those words.

“Really! Wow!”

“Anyway, I gotta go and drop this mail off, come on!”

Kuri practically sprints around the village, trying to see everything that she can in the small amount of time that we are here for. The sun is already quite low in the sky as we arrived at the village quite late in the day but that isn’t stopping her. She examines building and food, darting from one shop to another and walking down dozens of streets around the village.

I swear I would have to almost keep a leash on her to keep her from running away and disappearing like a child at a festival. Every now and again I catch a glimpse of Kuri’s face filled with pure and utter joy at every second she is in the village.

I wasn’t this energetic the first time I came to the village alone, I was so scared and nervous that I would get lost, even though I had been here a few times before with some of the other birds that travel between the sand and leaf. The first time I had to deliver an important message to the Kazekage I couldn’t deliver it personally, someone else had to take it in because I was just too nervous to even step into the room. I just hid behind the door while someone else hand delivered it.

Now it just seems so normal for me to be here and go in between villages and deliver important messages to important people within the village. I’ve since become good friends with Temari as I have seen her around so much and I’m fairly good friends with her brothers.

“Hey Kuri, it’s time to head back” I say to her, she’s examining one of the many buildings in the area we ended up in. She turns and faces me with the look of a sad child when told that they can’t have any more lollies. I’m sorry Kuri, but we can’t be late back, especially because I can hear your stomach rumbling looking at all the different food in the sand village.


	6. Something in Their Eyes

\--Miharu POV--

The sun is setting on the golden sand; the heat is lingering from absorbing the heat from the day. After dropping the mail off at the distribution centre, Kuri and I set back off to where we were staying the night. Gaara had invited us to have dinner with him and his siblings which is a great honour. Kuri seems especially excited; it’s her first time in the sand and she is already friends with the Kazekage. Who wouldn’t be excited?

We enter the large eating room and Gaara greets us as we walk in. He gets up and shows up where we are sitting, next to each other on one side of the table. Kankuro and Temari walk in soon after us and sit on the opposite side to us. Gaara is sitting on the end near us and we start having small conversations.

“What do you use most as a ninja? Jutsu, Taijutsu or weapons?” Temari asks Kuri

“Uh, I use a sword, one of the seven swords from the mist village.” Kuri replies

“Huh, how did you get one of the seven swords?” Kankuro asks, suddenly looking interested in the conversation. _Now begins the long back story._

Kuri begins telling the sand siblings about her long journey to the hidden leaf village. Her hard times at the mist village and getting one of the swords, I still can’t believe how young she was when all of this happened. _Although, I was even younger when… I don’t want to think about that._ I start to think of a date that is coming up for me, in another few weeks it is my parent’s anniversary. I don’t remember my parents but I have pictures of them and I was told about what happened that day…

My attention moves when plates of food are being placed in front of each of us. A piece of white meat, probably chicken, and various other vegetables are arranged on a white plate. It all smells so wonderful; I can’t believe that Gaara and his siblings would have something like this every night!

Although some things aren’t so good when you’re Kazekage. Gaara was taken by the Akatsuki not too long ago. The whole sand village was in panic and they were all so upset.

We all start to eat our food, it tastes so good! Back at the leaf village, I never eat a meal as grand as this. The flavours are so different from what we have at the leaf, everything has a different flavour. I look at Kuri; she must be enjoying the food by the look on her face. I guess she hasn’t eaten anything like this before; everything is so new for her.

Everyone finishes their meal and Kuri sits back satisfied and full.

“Thank-you so much for the meal Gaara, it was so good!” I say siting back in my chair, “Although, I hate to eat and run but we have to be leaving soon.”

“What! But we haven’t been here for very long!” Kuri exclaims

“We have to get back because we have training tomorrow afternoon and we need to get some rest before then.” I reply to her as she almost begins to sulk.

“Are you sure you can’t stay any longer?” Gaara asks me, looking past to look Kuri. _Ah, I see what’s going on._

“Don’t worry, we will visit the sand more times, I’m sure that Kuri wants to come here again.” I say smiling a little. Kuri’s eyes light up and she turns to me with a look of excitement across her face. I glance at Kuri and Gaara; they both seem to be looking at each other quite a bit. I catch Temari’s eye and smile; she knows what’s going on too.

After a few more small conversations, Kuri and I prepare to go. Temari filled up out drink bottles for us while we put our jackets on. Although the day may be super-hot, the nights can be quite cold.

After everything is ready, Kuri and I take off the roof and circle around a bit, shouting out goodbyes and heaps of waving. Then I bank left and we head out into the dessert. Kuri looks back until she can no longer see the silhouette of the village amongst the sand dunes. Because the sun has gone down and the heat has been sucked out of the air, I have to flap my wings heaps to stay high in the air. It is so much harder at night, but I really want to get back to the village for training.

By the time we get near the village, every flap of my wings aches to keep us in the air. Honestly I just want to lay down and rest for a bit, but it can be quite dangerous, especially with only two of us, no matter how good we are. I can’t scan the area at night; my eyes are as equally good as Kuri’s at night so I can’t watch out for other ninjas as a lookout.

By now I have slowed down quite a bit to stay in the air as there are no thermals to ride on, just cold, dead air.

“Argh, this night thing is taking forever! Why couldn’t we just stay at the sand village until the morning?” Kuri groans, she must be really tired after getting up so early in the morning and staying awake well into the night. She refused to sleep during the journey back.

“Because we have training tomorrow and I want to become better and I know that you really want to do training tomorrow as well! Also because I want to make Gaara want you more.” I say cheekily and pinch the skin on her leg

“What do you mean!?” She says hastily, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away in denial.

“You two are so into each other! Temari noticed as well, just the way you two were looking at each other, there was so something going on!” I reply, I know I’m right; she may deny it, but Temari and I know what’s going on, it was too obvious not to realise.

“N-nothing’s going on between us! Plus, I was not looking at him in _that_ way, you should get your eyes checked!” Kuri blurts, adding to the proof that something was going on, I think that she realises this and uncrosses her arms. She knows when she’s beaten in conversation.

My wings feel like they’re on fire! I’ve been flying non-stop for most of the night night with no thermals, plus an extra load on my back. It’s making me stronger in a way, but I must remind myself never to do this again! Hopefully next time I will be able to travel back during the day which will make it a little easier. 

Finally the village comes into view; I have never wanted to be grounded so badly. I drop onto the ground as soon as the clearing leading up to the village opens up and let Kuri off my back. We reach the village in the early hours of the morning; it can’t be very much past midnight. Although travelling by air is far faster than travelling by foot, it still took quite a while to get back to the village.

I almost collapse onto the ground once I’m inside the village but I stay strong until I get back to my apartment. My stomach and back muscles ache so much from trying to stay in a good flying position with someone on my back. This was surely going to kill tomorrow.

“I’m so glad to be back! Not that I don’t really like the sand, this is home, that’s all.” I say to Kuri as she has a drink from her water bottle.

“The sand was awesome! It was so beautiful and grand and all the people are really nice!” Kuri replies, making wild hand gestures and smiling her classic smile.

“You also got it going with Gaara!” I say teasingly, she pulls a face at me, she just can’t deny it anymore. “Anyway, I’ll see you later, I’m going to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow, you should too”,

“Yeah I guess” She replies waving at me and turning to her apartment. I turn back to where I’m running and slip through small streets. The streets are almost deserted at this time of the morning.

I climb the several flights of stair to get to my apartment and get into bed to be welcomed by sleep.


	7. Training

I must have been crazy when I decided to do training with Kakashi-sensei, right after I came back from a mailing run to the sand with another person on-board. Hopefully the training won’t be too hard, I would rather not die from over exerting myself but then again, no pain no gain.

After the mailing job yesterday, I wake up after only a few hours of sleep to my slightly messy room. My eyelids are droopy, threatening to close and make me fall back asleep which I really don’t need at this point. My type of messy is having an un-made bed and a few things lying around, compared to Kuri’s room, mine is always tidy; her apartment room is unbelievably messy. It is seriously messy. Lin is the same as me in a way; we always have tidy rooms, although even Lin’s can get very messy sometimes, it’s mostly just littered with training items that she has used. I realised a while ago that compared to Kuri and Lin, I didn’t have as many possessions compared to them so that’s one of the main reasons why my room doesn’t get that messy. But I’d better not get side tracked, I need to wake up and get out the door.

Instead of tidying my room (which wouldn’t have really taken that long but oh well), I put on a clean set of clothes, ready for the day ahead. I pull my hair up into a high pony tail and set out to leave. Rather than taking the stairs, I opt for the more fun option of jumping out my window because who hasn’t ever done that?

I slide my curtains open and unlock my balcony door. It isn’t much of a balcony but it’s enough for one person to jump off. I close it behind me and flow chakra into the seal on my back with my hand. That’s the interesting thing about my wings; they work as a summoning jutsu rather than a transformation jutsu but the seal on my back is specially engineered for my DNA. Being the last pureblood of my near-extinct clan, I’m the only one would could possibly be able to use this jutsu. The only downside to this is the big black seal over the main part of my back and the reminder of where it came from. Oh, and the holes I’ve had to cut in the back of all my jumpers.

I feel the slight tug of the warm thermals in my wings trying to push me upwards; there isn’t much of a pull as it’s still fairly early on in the day so I glide low over rooftops in the morning glow.

“Hey Miharu!” someone yells from below. I stop flying forwards and just flap hard in this sport to find who called out my name. I see an arm waving around and a broad smile plastered on the face of the caller. I slowly drop down out of the sky in a tight circle before fully extending my wings and dropping down gracefully onto the ground.

“How’s it going Lin?” I ask with a smile on my face, Lin’s face is priceless at the moment, a mixture of surprise and happiness. “You didn’t panic too much when you didn’t find us yesterday?”

“I swear, I’m never going to get used to that but yeah, I’m great thanks and no I didn’t panic, how’d it all go?”

“It went great, Kuri and Gaara got it on quite well”, I say to Lin playfully as I release the seal on my back and in a flurry of smoke and a few feathers, they disappear again, “So are you ready for training today?”

“Yeah, I am, got some new moves to try out”

* * *

Outside of the village walls lie the training grounds, a large open area surrounded by trees on all sides with a small river running through on one side.

No one else is here yet but us, we must be a bit early again.

“Hey Miharu! Lin! How’s it going?” we hear behind us, Kuri runs across the field towards us.

I see Lin’s eyes flick onto mine for a moment and I catch them and look back at Kuri who is almost where we are. Lin knows that something isn’t right either but whatever is going on, it isn’t genjutsu, maybe a transformation jutsu? Lin is carefully watching me for some sort of signal so before Kuri, or whoever this is, I flick my wrist outwards and Lin lunges forward and I quickly unsheathe my short sword from my waist and jump to the side of whoever this is. Lin grabs and throws the person hard onto the ground where it explodes and ink splatters around onto the ground.

“What the…?” Lin begins before we are interrupted by someone lunging at us from above with a kunai knife ready to attack us with but before this person can reach us, we dart outwards and out of the way.

“Naruto! Sai!” A female voice shouts and a person walks onto the training ground. The pink hair is unmistakably Sakura’s. After hearing Sakura yell at them, the person attacking us from above stops and lands on the ground and another person jumps out of the trees from the same side as well. I recognise them, they were with Yamato-sensei when we finished our first training with Kakashi-sensei. “Don’t just go and attack them like that! Wait until everyone gets here!” Sakura yells and Naruto and Sai, “Don’t be so eager!”

Sakura grumpily walks over with Yamato-sensei behind her looking a little embarrassed at the two boys.

“I’m really sorry about that, Naruto was just really excited about starting and ran off ahead and Sai joined in which he should have known not to do” Yamato says, glaring slightly at Naruto and Sai. Naruto scratches the back of his head with a sheepish grin on his face, “I’m really sorry Yamato-sensei” he replies

“Hey!” Someone yells cheerfully from the entrance to the training grounds. I turn and look to see Kuri running towards us with a large grin on her face as always, “I’m not late am I?” She gets closer and slows down to a walk and stops next to me and Kuri. Not long after Kakashi arrives

“Sorry to keep you waiting, I had a meeting with Lady Tsunade” he says to us

“Like hell you were, you probably just reading that book again!” Naruto barks at him, clearly this isn’t the first time he has been late to training.

“Actually Naruto, I was”, Naruto’s face suddenly changed from smiling to looking serious. In fact, everyone’s did, “I was called because an urgent mission came in. A group of rogue ninjas have stolen some important documents that were getting ready to be transported here. We’ve been assigned to retrieve all of the documents and bring them back before they can be opened or destroyed. Go and get ready, meet at the main gate as soon as you can” Kakashi explains as we all listen intently. What kind of important documents are these?

“Yes!” We all say in unison and promptly leave to get ready.

* * *

After collecting everything I need from my apartment, I rush back out to the main gate. Kakashi and Yamato are already there waiting for us to arrive. Kuri, Lin, Sakura, Naruto, Sai and I arrive at almost the same time.

“Great you’re all here, the ninja’s we are looking for are rouges which are believed to be from the hidden mist village so we are heading towards the land of waves. When we get closer, Miharu and Sai will lookout and locate where the ninjas are and relay that information back to us” Kakashi explains and looks to me

“Yes Kakashi-sensei” I reply nodding my head. That should be easy enough, as long as they aren’t indoors.

“Then the some of us will move in and retrieve the information while the rest take care of the rouge ninjas” Kakashi finished explaining, “Alright, lets head out!”

We start running away from the village gates until we reach denser forest where we move by jumping between tree branches in the upper levels of the trees. We move quite quickly towards the land of waves as it is an urgent mission.

Everyone stays silent as the atmosphere is tense and serious. I feel really nervous, being depended on to find these ninjas who have stolen important documents, and I really need to stay alert.

“Miharu, Sai, it’s time” Kakashi says

“Yes Kakashi-sensei” I reply before jumping upwards through the canopy of the trees.

I press my hand against my back to quickly release my seal with a flow of chakra which causes my wings to explode out of my back. With a few hard flaps I hold my height in the air before moving upwards higher and speeding forwards. Right after, Sai emerges from the canopy on the back of a giant ink bird and moves up next to me in the sky. We quickly and easily move ahead of Kakashi and the others and begin searching from the sky for the rogue ninjas. I move up higher to get a better view of the ground beneath. My hawk eyes easily survey the land below, quickly scanning everything that moves. A rabbit peeking it’s head out of a burrow, a mouse slowly moving through grass, a bird returning to its nest. Sai didn’t say anything to me, there was such a tense atmosphere around us to locate these ninja.

_There!_

“Sai! I’ve located the rouge ninjas!” I shout to him, from up here no one below can hear us, not in a long shot. Sai looks back with his plain and emotionless face with what looked like the smallest hint of surprise or at least what I can guess is surprise. “They haven’t spotted us yet, there are in a small clearing at 2o’clock around 1500 metres ahead and from what I can see, they are all in that area, none are guarding the area around” I relay to him

“Okay” he replies and hastily turns around and drops down to find Kakashi, Yamato and the others. I follow behind, folding my wings flat against my back to minimise air resistance, causing me to drop rapidly through the sky. Just like what I did the other day with Kakashi.

I loose altitude and slow down to wait for the others to catch back up so I can receive more information. Once out of the warm thermals in the sky I flap more often to stay in the air.

“They haven’t spotted us yet, there are in a small clearing at 2o’clock, 1500 metres ahead” Sai says to Kakashi and the others. Damn he’s sneaky but you know what, the most important thing is the mission at hand. I’ll just have to let this go. I see Kuroda looking at Sai a bit weirdly and then glances over at me, I think she knows what’s up.

“Is everybody clear on directions?” Yamato says firmly, “Miharu, Lin will explain your task and Sai, Sakura will explain yours” he continues as we set off in an arrow formation. I move next to Lin as we run along the ground through the trees.

“Okay, so we’re going to be moving in from behind with Yamato as a surprise attack when Kakashi gives the signal. Once we’ve recovered most or all of the documents, your job is to collect them and fly up and keep them safe. Sai will be there for backup if needed” I reply by nodding my head and turn back to face forward.

“We’re coming up to the clearing, Yamato, Lin, Miharu, move out!” Kakashi says in an urgent tone. We move out in a wide semi-circle around the clearing to avoid being seen or heard. Yamato soon slows us down and we move slowly into position in the top of the trees near the edge of the clearing. From here I can better see all the rouges. Now it’s just a waiting game, waiting for Kakashi to give the signal for us to move in. My heart rates really increasing, it’s been a while since I’ve done a mission as important as this one.

It isn’t long until Kakashi, team 7 and Kuri move into the cleaning and begin their assault with the rogue ninja. After watching Kuri for a while, something definitely seems off, her actions are more wild and dangerous than what they are usually like. Sure she’s a passionate and strong fighter, but this isn’t her usual way of fighting.

Alright Kakashi, surely sometime now you’ll be calling us in to help. Okay freaky, maybe along with the sharingan, Kakashi can read minds. He gives the signal and Yamato, Lin and I rush into the clearing, creating a surprise attack on the remaining ninja. Okay, whilst everyone is fighting, it’s time to move onto my job, collecting the documents. Kakashi told us there were five scrolls in total, they can’t be too hard to find, and seeing as they’ve been put down in a pile along with the rouge’s other stolen goods I have to say, not hard to find at all. I rush over around the outside of the battle, surprisingly; no one seems to be guarding the pile. Maybe the rouges are trying to protect something more important. I can’t even see any traps or anything leading to the pile. Though that may be the case, I get in and pick them up as quickly as possible and move out back into the field.

I release the seal on my wings by concentrating my chakra on that area because my hands are full; concentrating the chakra with my hand activates the seal a bit quicker but I’m not really going to drop the documents to do so. I lift my wings up for a big downward thrust and push down as hard as possible. The reaction is my speedy acceleration above the trees. I continue to gain altitude until I’m out of reach from any of the rogue ninja below. One by one I check the seal on each of the scrolls to make sure that they are ours and they have not been opened. Lucky me, none of them have been opened and all are accounted for.

I circle around and watch the finale of a swift battle. The last of the rogue ninja are dealt with and everyone, although slightly more relaxed, remain on alert for anyone who may be lurking or planning a counter attack.

Methodically, Kakashi, Yamato and everyone else searches through the rogue ninja’s items to see if anything else of importance was taken. I drop my altitude down lower, seeing as no one is lurking anywhere and no one is trying to get at me. After another signal from Kakashi, I drop down to join with both teams again.

“Good work everyone” Yamato says to the gathered group. Kuri seems to be a bit more exhausted compared to everyone else which is understandable after her mini rage against the rouge ninja.

“Miharu, you got all of the documents?” Kakashi asks, I raise up the scrolls so everyone can get a better view.

“I got all of them, none of them have been opened” I reply. Kakashi takes the scrolls out of my arms and looks at them himself. Once he is happy with the results he puts them in his bag for safe keeping.

“Okay lets head back to the village. Miharu, can you fly ahead to see if there is anyone hiding on the way back towards the village?”

“Yes I can do that, I’ll alert you if there is anyone” I say. Everyone begins moving off in the direction of the village and I once again launch myself upwards and fly ahead of the group, scanning through the trees for any movement.

I get most of the way back and it’s honestly been kind of easy for me today. I guess if something had gone wrong or all of the scrolls weren’t in one pile, I may have had a bit more of a job. Even flying back, the forest seems empty, aside from the wildlife.

I fly back down towards the group in a slow circle. There are a little ways behind and have stopped running to walk instead.

“The coast is clear up to the village” I shout down towards everyone. I see Kuri is back to her usually self, jumping around like an energetic kid, possibly even more than usual. It’s strange that she can go from being so serious to so energetic so quickly, just one of her many personality traits I guess. That said, I’ve been with her for so many years and I’ve never quite gotten used to the random bouts of energy. That said, I’m used to the energy but not the unpredictable nature of the energy.

All of a sudden Kuri jumps up towards me with a broad smile on her face. Instinctively I go to catch her but I can only hold on with one hand and my body turns over due to the unbalance. I fall backwards and Kuri lets go of my hand and falls downwards also. I flail my arms around trying to rebalance myself and turn over but it’s all to no avail and it’s now too late to do anything else. I won’t be able to fold up my wings in time to right myself from falling backwards so I really just have to face the fact that I’m going to crash down onto the ground on my back.

Rather than feeling the embrace of the hard ground, my fall is softened by someone catching me. I turn and see Sai looking down at me with a surprised look on his face. I feel my cheeks get slightly warm which is the last thing I need right now.

“Ah sorry Sai”, I say hastily as I stand myself up and step backwards, “but thank you for catching me”. I look over at Kuri who managed to land safely by herself.

“Ah sorry Miharu, I got a bit too excited there” Kuri says in a quieter tone whilst looking a little ashamed of her actions.

“Sai, what’s wrong?” Sakura asks. Kuri looks up towards Sai and a smile breaks out across her face again.

“He’s probably surprised at how much Miharu weighs!” She exclaims and without warning, I feel two arms wrapped tightly around my waist, hoisting me up into the air. Everyone else’s’ faces look shocked also at the image of my in the air.

“Hey Kuri! Please put me back down” I reply. Now I can really feel my face getting warmer. For some reason, Kuri and Lin love to show off how much I weigh. It’s more the shock when people realise that I don’t weigh as much as they expect. For my build, I weigh a lot less than people think. Kuri quickly puts me down but my feet only get a moment on the ground before Naruto rushes over and picks me up in the same manner.

“Woah Sakamoto, you don’t weigh anything at all!” I guess I’ll just have to accept the fact that everyone that Lin and Kuri talk to are going to want to pick me up and see for themselves.

“Alright Naruto that’s enough, put Miharu back down. We’re almost back at the village” Kakashi says. Time quickly passes and the gates of Konoha become visible again. Home sweet home, soon I can be back in my apartment relaxing with a good book. I might even have to do some more shopping later. Either way, I’m still going to go home and relax for a while before going back out. Seeing as it’s only about mid-afternoon, I’ve got plenty of time to get everything done.

“Yamato and I are going to report back with Lady Tsunade about the mission. Tomorrow you may have a rest day and we will be training again the day after.” Kakashi says before disappearing into a cloud of smoke along with Yamato.

“Yes!” Naruto exclaims as he jumps in the air and pumps a fist upwards. Sakura seems unimpressed with his comment whilst Sai stays quiet.

“We can’t always have rest days Naruto, we have to use them to fully rest up” She says. Naruto remains quiet as a response to her comment whilst we all keep walking back into the village. We reach the street that Kuri, Lin and I turn off to get back to our homes.

“Good work today everyone, I guess we’ll be seeing you the day after tomorrow” Lin says cheerfully.

“Yeah I guess we will, see you later” Sakura replies with a smile

“Seeing as we are going to be working together more often”, Sai begins, “To become closer as teammates, I thought it would be good to give you nicknames” he finishes. Sakura’s face turns from smiling to concern along with Naruto’s.

“Eh? What’s wrong?” I ask. Sakura and Naruto just stay silent. At this point I’m a little concerned about this nickname. I can’t see what’s wrong with a nickname though and I see’s Sai’s point of getting closer as teammates as we are going to be spending more time together it seems.

“Nothing… fatty” He says calmly without breaking a sweat. Fatty? What kind of nickname is that? After all the excitement of everyone picking me up and throwing me around like some sort of doll. Okay that may be a bit of an exaggeration but still. My heart sinks a little as what he said really sets in.

“Okay Sai that’s enough of your nicknames”, Sakura says firmly, “See you tomorrow”, Sakura finishes before pulling Sai away with her as they walk down the street. I turn and start walking down the street Kuri, Lin and I were heading down.

“Hey Miharu, I wouldn’t think too much of it, I’m sure he was just joking around” Lin says comfortingly. I grin at her to cheer her up along with a slight laugh. I guess I’ll have to keep convincing myself that it was a joke, no one that unacquainted would just straight out call someone a fatty.

“Yeah I’m sure he was only joking. Now I just want to know what your nicknames are”

* * *

“Sai, why did you call Sakamoto a fatty?” Sakura asks an unfazed Sai as they continue through the streets of Konoha.

“Well, a nickname is used to describe someone and girls like to be called the opposite of what they are”, he replies with his hand on his chin in a thinking position, confused about why Miharu didn’t like the nickname. Naruto laughs in response and Sakura looks back at him in surprise.

“Sai, you have so much to learn about girls, just make sure you apologise to Sakamoto tomorrow”


	8. Day Off

The sun slowly creeps in through my curtains breaking me out of my half asleep state. Though I could spend my rest day sleeping in and staying in my comfy pyjamas, it seems silly to waste what’s looking like a beautiful day. As I pull the bedsheets off my body, the cooler air hits my skin and goose bumps crawl up both my arms which sends a shiver down my spine. I draw the curtains open and look out at the village, the sun sitting just above the trees surrounding with only a few small, wispy clouds dotted randomly in the sky. With the few errands I have to run, I’m glad the weather is so nice, it also looks like it’s going to be warm so the thermals will be perfect.

First things first, got to get changed into something that isn’t pyjamas. After a quick look through my cupboard, I decide that it’s a leggings and loose tank top kind of day. I take my clothes into the bathroom and boy do I get some interesting bed hair on some mornings. Whilst most of my hair seems to be relatively normal looking aside from its need for a hairbrush, one section in the back is a lot fluffier than the rest. Brushing it out doesn’t seem to be working so I opt for a high ponytail instead. I also tie a knot on the side of the tank top to make the bottom a bit tighter on my hips.

Time to move onto breakfast and it looks pretty stock standard today, the usual bread and juice. Whilst it may not be the most exciting breakfast ever, it gets rid of the hunger. I think I’ll go check on the mail first to see the current situation then head towards the library to return some books and maybe borrow out some new ones to read. I may as well get some groceries as well but that isn’t any real rush so I can get them later in the day. Maybe I’ll see what the others are up to, might get lunch with them if they’re free and enjoy this day off.

I gather up everything I need to and leave my apartment with a light spring in my step from a mixture of energy from a good night’s sleep and the good weather outside. At mid-morning, the streets are already filling up with people, each with their own destination or purpose. Some are out shopping whilst a few look like they’re heading out for a mission. Restaurant owners are opening their stores ready for lunchtime, opening their windows and setting up the chairs and tables outside.

After a short while I pass by Kuri’s apartment, her curtains are still pulled shut so it’s clear that she isn’t a wake which isn’t very surprising as she jumps at any opportunity for some extra hours of sleep. No doubt she’ll be sleeping past midday and still say she’s tired after around 12 hours of sleep.

After walking a good way towards the Hokage’s Mansion, the books are starting to get rather tedious to carry around, it would probably be a better idea to drop them off at the library first then come back later to borrow more out. I turn down the street I need and put the books onto the return tray, from the looks of it there aren’t many people in the library yet, probably still too early for most people.

Okay next stop, the mailing office.

***

After checking up on the mail and the birds, I walk back into the library. The cooler air hits my face as I walk in and it takes a few seconds for my body to adapt to the new temperature. The library still doesn’t seem to be busy at all, only a few people are wandering around and reading at the tables. I guess a lot of people must be busy today. I scan though the fiction, waiting for a title that sounds interesting to catch my eye. Very slowly but surely I gather only two books that sound interesting before I head over to the non-fiction section. Now’s the point to decide what I want to read about, I’ve already looked at birds, fish, cooking and a little bit of history. I continue walking through the shelves before I almost bump into a person turning the corner around one of the shelves. I really need to stop daydreaming whilst walking in the library, it could cause an accident one day.

“Ah sorry!” I say hastily before backing up and looking up at the person. The person’s wearing dark pants and a long sleeve top whilst holding a good armful of books. Sai, of course it has to be Sai.

“Oh Sakamoto, good morning… um…” He says. His sentence trails off at the end for some reason and between us there is just a long silence. I don’t want to seem rude and walk away as he seems to want to say something but doesn’t quite know how to put it.

“What is it?” I ask hesitantly. He looks up and his dark eyes meet mine.

“I’m sorry about what I called you yesterday, I didn’t mean for it to be rude” He says. I feel my face get warm and I’m suddenly speechless. He breaks eye contact and looks at the books on the shelf that is the closest one to us to avoid my gaze. Maybe I’ve been judging Sai wrong all this time, I wasn’t expecting such a sincere apology so maybe he isn’t as bad as I had come to think.

“Don’t worry about it Sai. If you really want to give me a nickname, you can just call me Miharu”, I say. Sai looks back into my eyes and I smile which he soon replicates. It’s such a warm and sincere smile that causes my heart to flutter a little. Calm down, your acting as if no one has ever smiled at you before.

“Okay, thank you” He replies in a warm tone, something that contrasts with his cool appearance.

“No problem, I’m sure Kuri and Lin also wouldn’t mind you using their first names either, seeing as we’re probably going to be working together a lot”. Kuri especially would rather people use her first name only as she hates it when people call her Kuroda and she just doesn’t like her surname as it links her to her previous village. Lin on the other hand doesn’t really mind if people use her first name or her surname but to her it seems more practical to use her first name, especially in battle, as it’s simpler and easier to say. “Again sorry for bumping into you, I’ll see you again sometime, probably on a mission or something, see you later”

“Ah yes, have a good day”, he replies. I walk around and towards where I was originally heading. You know actually, I don’t think I need to get any more books because I still have some back at home to finish off reading.

I borrow out the two books and head back out into the village, I guess I’ll check if Kuri is awake yet as it’s almost lunchtime.

The village really seems to be alive now with the smell of food from all different restaurants mixing and traveling through the air and engulfing people as they walk along the streets. I get outside Kuri’s apartment and somehow her curtains have opened, being up before lunchtime is a rare occurrence on her days off.

I head into her building and climb up to the second floor, her building is quite small compared to some others which means it is always quiet inside which is a great contrast to her personality. I really wonder what her neighbours think of her sometimes, seeing as she is almost always late and rushing around her apartment to get ready as quickly as possible, maybe that’s why it always seems to be messy. Her rooms is the furthest away from the stairs at the other end of the walkway and in the silence, every footstep seems to echo on the off-white walls and feels almost suffocating. Even breathing in the silence feels too loud, and I still have to knock on her door.

Her door is the same as all the others, just a plain wood door with no windows or decorative elements to break up the plain looking hallway. The only thing that separates hers from the rest is that the number on hers has fallen off and is propped up against the bottom of the doorframe, it still hasn’t been attached back onto the door. The poor “6” has had quite a beating over the years and it was only a matter of time until it was going to fall off. It was a morning where she was late as usual and it was in her rush to shut the door that she slammed it so hard that the number just couldn’t hold up any longer and lay flat on the ground. It’s been at least a few months since that happened but it’s just like her to not fix it and leave it there.

I walk up and knock lightly on her door, each knock booming back into the hallway. After a few seconds I can hear shuffling from inside her apartment and the door slowly opens to reveal a tired looking Kuri. Though she’s out of bed, it looks like she could fall asleep at any moment. Her eyes are droopy and it looks like her holding onto the door is the only thing stopping her from falling over, and somehow, she’s managed to get changed out of her pyjamas.

“Morning Miharu”, she says immediately followed by a yawn, “how long have you been up?”

“Hey Kuri, honestly it’s been a few hours at this point, I’m guessing you’ve just woken up?” I reply, she opens her door fully to let me in and I’m greeted by the familiar sight of her messy apartment.

“Mm Yeah I did, I’m just making breakfast now, do you want anything?” She closes the door behind me and begins walking towards her small kitchen, somehow avoiding all of the miscellaneous items on the floor. It’s actually rather incredible how even in this state, she manages to not injure herself in her apartment, even when there’s all kinds of weaponry everywhere.

“I’m good thanks, I had breakfast before I went out, I had the weirdest encounter with Sai in the library”, she seems to perk up a bit as if the action of pouring the hot water in her coffee is enough to wake her up.

“What happened?”, she asks in a bright tone. Naturally she loves a bit of gossip and especially any that concerns people we know, she quickly collects her food and plops down in the chair next to me and puts her food on the small, square table that separates us.

“I bumped into him at the library earlier, and he apologised for calling me fat yesterday, I really wasn’t expecting it, he didn’t seem like the type to do that”, Kuri takes a bite out of her toast and seems to be analysing what I’ve said to come up with a reasonable explanation, “I guess to be fair we haven’t known him very long but from his cold personality I really wasn’t expecting it, he also smiled at me!”, Kuri quickly swallows her food and seems to be thinking of a response.

“I reckon Sakura had something to do with it”, she laughs and I can’t help but chuckle at her comment. It does seem like a reasonable explanation for his contrasting behaviour but seeing as we both don’t know him well enough it can’t be ruled out as normal behaviour.

“Well, that is possible!” I reply

“And come on Kuri, even boys smile sometimes!” She exclaims with a big grin now covering her face. I give her an exaggerated surprised expression and she just tilts back and laughs and I can’t help but join in.

“You have much planned for today?”, I ask once the laughing stops

“I was thinking about cleaning my apartment today”, she replies confidently, looking around the bombshell that is her apartment.

“Come on, we all know that’s a lie, you’ll just get distracted and end up not doing it again”, I chuckle, Kuri looks embarrassed, probably because she knows that it’s true. “If you want I’ll help you out with it today, I don’t have anything else to do”

“Oh yes please!” She quickly exclaims, of course she jumps at the opportunity for someone else to clean up. Though, I do wonder how long the cleanliness will last with her lifestyle.

“We’d better get started then, we’ve got a lot of work to do”


	9. Training with Team 7

The pain swept over my entire body, even though I had painkillers, it was still was immense. My whole body was paralysed but I could still scream. It echoed throughout the many empty hallways and bounced off the walls in the room. My face was wet with tears but he would not stop. It felt like a million knives bearing down into the bare flesh on my back and yet there was no blood. It was all the pain of being tortured but with no evidence left on the surface.

Even after he was done the pain continued, sweeping over and paralysing my body from head to toe with the most being concentrated on my back. I wanted to tear and pull at the skin to get it off in hopes the pain would stop but I couldn’t, my hands are chained down to the ground. The pain only makes the uncomfortable position worse. My knees are bruised and sore from the ground and any movement just causes more pain. I want it to end, I want it to be over, but his shadow looming mercilessly over my body only makes me break down and cry, knowing I’m just a toy for him to play with. My only purpose is to be his experiment, I know this pain isn’t the end, his smile glowing in the dark just makes me more upset. He’s enjoying my pain, and I know it won’t stop.

* * *

I wake up with a jot and scan the room hastily. Take a deep breath Miharu, it’s just your bedroom. I didn’t sleep all that well knowing what day today is. Today is the day I was kidnapped and I never saw my parents again. The day a child was tortured and manipulated by an evil man before being rescued and coming home to nothing but emptiness.

I ended up shopping late last night and I dropped a note under Lin’s door, I hope she gets it. Sorry Kakashi, I don’t think I’ll be at training today.

* * *

“Good morning everyone” Kakashi says brightly as he enters the training ground

“Morning Kakashi-sensei” Lin and Kuri say in a saddened tone, “Lin, Kuri, what’s wrong, why isn’t Miharu here yet?” He continues. Lin and Kuri both look at each other in silence

“Um Kakashi-sensei” Lin begins, “Miharu isn’t going to be at training today”, Kakashi looks at both Lin and Kuri in shock and disbelief. Both stand with their eyes facing the ground in silence.

“You see, today is a bit of a rough day for her”, Kuri says to break the silence before looking back at Lin again who nods at her teammate, “She also asked us to tell you about it”, Kakashi continues to stand in silence

“I’m sure you have heard a bit about what happened to her but just before she turned two, she was kidnapped by Orochimaru who also killed both of her parents. He trained her and experimented on her, giving her the seal that releases those wings. I’m sure she could go into the detail of what happened but when she was six, some of the Anbu black ops had managed to infiltrate Orochimaru’s hideout, retrieved her and brought her back to the leaf. After being in intensive care, my family took her in and looked after her” Lin explains, “She slowly started to open up a bit more but she felt isolated compared to everyone else. Soon after, Kuri came to the village and we went through the academy and were put on a squad together. I think that really helped her to open up a lot more but even now she still sufferers a bit from it”

“We’re sorry about not telling you about this sooner but we didn’t really want to tell you anything without Miharu’s consent”, Kuri says to Kakashi

“She doesn’t like to talk about it too much for obvious reasons”

* * *

Alright, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep hiding from my past, it’s been ten years since I was rescued so it’s about time I got over this. I get up out of my bed and move over to the window which I open up to let the fresh air into my room. The mid-morning light illuminates my room, bringing light to all the dark corners. Though it’s still early, the sun begins to warm my skin in contrast to the cool, fresh air outside.

I can’t keep stalling and standing outside, it’s about time I get going, I’m already late for training.

* * *

Damn I really hope I’m not too late to training, I already know I’m a tad late but hey, the quicker I go, the quicker I can deal with my past and more importantly, the quicker I can get to training. Thankfully, I enter the training grounds and see three familiar figures still standing in the centre. Kuri and Lin who have their backs facing me turn and I can see the shocked looks on their faces.

“Miharu? What are you doing here? Are you okay?” Kuri says worriedly as I near the trio. She walks towards me hesitantly, as if I am some weird apparition that they’re all seeing and they’re not sure if I’m really there.

“I’m fine, I really shouldn’t be skipping out on training so I came along. I’m sorry I’m late Kakashi and that I got Lin to tell you about my past. I should’ve have told you myself. I’ve decided that I’ve had enough of hiding from my past, it’s in the past and it’s time I got over it” I say apologetically, Kuri and Lin both look surprised but their faces quickly soften into smiles. I don’t want to think of how annoying I’ve been to them over the past years, I must have seemed like such a baby and I hope Kakashi doesn’t think the same of me.

“Thank you for coming along Miharu” Kakashi says. The tone of his voice reassures that he isn’t going to treat me as a baby and that he accepts my apology. If it was more worried or questioning, I would have thought otherwise but it was accepting and understanding, I guess he would’ve already known some of the details surrounding my past but how much I’m not sure.

“So, what are we doing today Kakashi-sensei?” Kuri says impatiently, as energetic as ever it seems.

“Well, I’ve planned to have the joint training session again with team 7 and Yamato” Kakashi says. Team 7, that means that Sai is going to be here and I still don’t really know what to make of his apology yesterday. Whether it was him actually meaning it or if someone made him apologise. Kuri’s face lightens up at Kakashi’s reply, she is always excited for a fight, even if it is just training.

“Kakashi-sensei, can you tell us a little more about team 7 and how they fight? We got to see a bit yesterday but we would like to plan accordingly”, Lin asks Kakashi

“Yes I can”

* * *

Team 7 sure didn’t give us a lot of time to plan. They all walk onto the training ground together with Naruto at the front and Yamato at the back. Kakashi told us that both he and Yamato would also be fighting along with us which makes it all the more interesting and will really increase the difficulty. We decided that our usual set up wasn’t going to work either, there are too many people and we need to work closer as a team. The good news is that we have techniques for this kind of fight. It just means that we don’t have a planned set up which is more realistic in the long run.

“Now that everyone’s here, I’ll explain the training”, Kakashi begins, he then holds up a number of coloured bands, “Each member of the team is going to wear one of these, the aim is to collect the bands from the other team. Once your band has been captured, you are out. The winning team is the one who collects all the bands from the other team. The band has to be tucked into your pants and can’t be moved once the training begins. Any questions?” Kakashi explains, a silence follows his question which means no one has questions.

This training is really going to test all of our skills and our teamwork, no doubt both teams are going to set up traps and ambush the opposition, that’s probably going to be the easiest way to get the bands. Kakashi hands out all the bands, blue to our team and red to Yamato’s team.

“Everyone has until sunset to collect the bands, once this timer goes off then everyone can start. This is the time now to discuss tactics” Kakashi continues. I head off with my team into the forest whilst Yamato’s team heads off into the other direction.

“Well, tactics wise, it would probably be best to set up a trap of some sort”, Lin says, seems like we were both thinking the same thing

“Yeah but wouldn’t the other’s be doing that as well? I mean, it’s pretty obvious that we would make a trap”, Kuri continues

“That’s true, but having a trap is a good back up plan if we need it. If one of us gets separated and outnumbered, then using a trap could be a good plan. At least having one that we could use would be helpful”, I reply, it does make sense that the other team would assume that we would make a trap, we also assume that of them.

“My guess is that the other team will try to overpower us and use Yamato-sensei to capture us in some way to get the tag”, Lin says again

“I agree”, Kakashi says after being quiet for quite a while. He must have been waiting for the right opportunity to join in. Although he could easily give us a strategy, it’s probably best as a teacher to let us come up with ideas and help us refine them into a great plan.

We talk for a few more minutes, coming up with a comprehensive plan before waiting for the sound of the timer to go off. This really is going to be difficult, although I could easily stay out of reach, that doesn’t exactly help my team in gathering the bands and it would just end in a stalemate of both teams.

Okay, deep breaths, get into the zone and focus on the plan and task ahead.

And in the silence is the sound of a distant timer going off.


End file.
